Cade Cunningham took over when the Pistons needed him most, and Detroit used a sharp second half to turn a sluggish night into a 97-89 win over the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday.
Cunningham finished with 30 points and seven assists, going 10-for-22 from the floor and hitting 4 of 9 from 3-point range. Paul Reed added 16 points, reserve Daniss Jenkins scored 14 and Duncan Robinson chipped in 13 as Detroit improved to 4-1 after bouncing back from Tuesday night’s loss to the New York Knicks.
Charlotte got another big night from Brandon Miller, who scored 31 points for his third straight game with at least 30. He also grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds, but his production faded late, with only four points over the final 15 minutes. Dennis Schroder added 14 points, and no other Hornets player reached double figures.
The Pistons were still chasing at halftime, trailing 51-44 after Charlotte built a 12-point first-half cushion. But Detroit came out swinging after the break, opening the second half with a 13-5 run that included a Cunningham 3-pointer and eventually flipping the game by the end of the third quarter, when the Pistons held a 76-70 edge.
Cunningham kept the pressure on to start the fourth, scoring the first two baskets of the period and stretching Detroit’s lead to 80-70. Four minutes into the quarter, Miller was still the only Charlotte player in double figures, a sign of how thin the Hornets’ offense had become.
Charlotte’s two-game winning streak ended with the loss. Miller shot 12-for-26 from the field and made 3 of 10 from deep, while the rest of the Hornets’ starters combined to go 4-for-10 from beyond the arc. Moussa Diabate and reserves Royce O’Neale and Grayson Allen each scored nine points.
It was a different look from Detroit’s previous game, when the starters had been buried under a heavy reserve workload in a lopsided first half. This time, the opening unit did the heavy lifting, and Cunningham made sure the comeback stuck.
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